Conservation Force Legal Action Update

Written By John J. Jackson III, Conservation Force Chairman & President

(posted March 2012)

Straight-Horned Markhor Developments

In response to the Markhor III suit, the USFWS is promising to make the 12-month finding on the downlisting of the straight-horned markhor in the Torghar region of Pakistan before the end of July, 2012. Despite our request for a timeline, none was provided before suit was filed and there also was no response whatsoever to the 60-day notice of intent to sue. Only now does the USFWS claim it is a waste of resources to litigate because the Court would not resolve it before July anyway. We have reminded the USFWS that this is the second petition to downlist those markhor, that USFWS has broken all past promises, that we requested the expected date before the third suit was filed, etc. Nevertheless, we hope to settle this case in the next few weeks if we can get the USFWS to enter into a consent judgment of some sort. In the meantime, the measurable loss to that conservation hunting program is $105,000 per markhor, i.e. the difference in price between those markhor that can be imported and those that can’t. The whole conservation world is watching this one.

Wood Bison Developments

On February 8th, the 12-month deadline for the downlisting determination on the Canadian wood bison passed without a final ruling. On the next day, we sent the necessary 60-day notice of intent to sue for not making the finding within the mandatory period because we haven’t been able to get a date of completion from the USFWS. In that notice we again asked for a date with the objective of not filing suit if it is not really necessary or if the litigation can’t be consummated before the USFWS will make the decision anyway. No response yet. We expect a favorable downlisting decision when the USFWS does issue its final rule.